Flexible plastic tubes can already contain information entered by the flexible tube manufacturer during the production of the tube. Thus, application JP2003-165552 (LION Corp.) discloses a flexible tube equipped—near the final weld—with a bar code or a decoration representing a registered trademark for detection of the product name. The information can, if necessary, be discreet, for example if the printing is performed with thermochromic or “security” inks detectable only under heat, ultraviolet radiation, and so on.
Such techniques require prior knowledge of the product information when the tube is produced. Therefore, it is not possible to characterise a product intended to be packaged in a standard tube that can be used for other products. For example, if a decoration is to be made using UV inks, it can be done during production of the tube, either on the web for laminated tubes, or on the extruded cylindrical body (plastic tubes) with conventional printing devices. However, once the tube has been delivered to the packaging client, the information can no longer be modified, unless the client is equipped with expensive printing devices. In practice, it is therefore difficult if not impossible to provide additional information, encoded or not, on the tube once it has been produced and delivered to the packager.
A known technique for overcoming this problem consists of printing a label containing the desired information, encoded or not, and placing it either on a package that contains the flexible tubes delivered to the packager (for example, for checking the tubes), or directly on the skirt of the flexible tube (for example, for monitoring the product contained in the tubes). However, an important problem is raised by the use of a label: it is very easy to remove it and thus separate the information that it contains from the product that it is supposed to accompany.
Patent application KR2003-025624 (ID TECK Co Ltd) discloses a cap equipped with a contactless electronic circuit that makes it possible, by means of remote read and write devices, to prevent counterfeiting of the product contained in the container closed by the cap. Due to its bulk, such a cap appears to be unsuitable for closing a flexible tube of standard size (diameter of the skirt typically between 15 and 60 mm, diameter of the neck typically between 5 and 15 mm). Moreover, once the container is open, the cap can easily be lost or exchanged. In this case, again, there is a risk of separation between the information and the product with which it is associated.
Patent EP 0 697 342 discloses a flexible tube provided with an antitheft device, consisting of a passive field-disturbance element inserted between the layers of a multilayer structure inserted on the flexible tube (multilayer insert going from the skirt to the shoulder, multilayer lid, etc. . . . ).
German patent application DE 102 18 417 (TUBEX) discloses a dispenser consisting of a flexible tube overmolded with a flip-top cap assembled so as to be substantially permanent on the head of the tube, which dispenser is provided with a transponder or magnetic band-type electronic module placed, typically by means of a support acting as a label, in a location inaccessible from the head.
The applicant aims to propose a technical device making it possible to ensure monitoring of the production of the tubes, and to offer the packaging clients the possibility of providing—after production of the tube—reliable information, encoded or not, on the product contained in the tube, regardless of whether the latter is equipped with a flip-top cap, and without the risk of losing the information throughout the life of the tube.